Friday February 04, 2005

So how do I like the Golf ?

Well having taken delivery of the car I chose on a wet tuesday I have not really driven it much apart to/from work. So far I have not had any teething troubles.

I am amazed that it does not seem much smaller than the Passat and in fact width wise it fits in the garage only a little easier than the Passat did, so I still have to be careful. The six cd changer is great. The previous one I had was in the boot and used a cd cassette holder. So the whole lot had to come out if you wanted to swap one. This little charmer can spit out any of the six. It swallows the cd with aplomb.

The Golf feels a little more assured on road and does not wallow as much as the Passat even though both have lowered sports suspension. My first drive back home was a disaster, a nasty snarl up on the way to Bracknell that ended up with an average speed of 9mph even when I skirted the traffic around Ascot etc. Driving on those narrow roads in an unfamiliar car was not fun. However since then my MPG/MPL is much better than the Passat nearly reaching the dizzy heights of 30 MPG yesterday, not bad for an urban crawl.

Inside the dials have the blue glow the Passat had with red 'needles' and the switches all give off a luminescent red in the dark. All the things that open do so slowly and close with a solid feel to them. It has loads of airbags and other safety features, one less obvious is the fact that the in car sound system has all the controls at eye level so to change a CD or skip a track you do not have to look down.

The engine and six gears are going to take a bit of getting used too. The power and torque curve is very different from the petrol turbo and I must remember to fill it up with diesel. That reminds me of a tastless VW advert where they showed a car with reminders on it but just showing the word "die". At the end of the advert the full word "diesel" was revealed. My only gripe so far is the pedals are a bit close but I am sure I will get used to that.

So all in all I am a happy owner of my first privately owned car for ten years.

Remote managing...

I have been managing remote staff at Sun for at least five years. I started with three geographgical regions and now have just two, EMEA and APAC. However I now manage folks in other countries in EMEA apart from just the UK. Before I discuss how I approach doing this I would like to say this is a great opportunity which I would encourage existing managers to do if you get the chance !

When I started doing this my then manager told me something I will never forget. You have to make sure you have that conversation with your remote staff, the sort of chat you have when you meet while walking around the building, in the break area etc. This means you have to make time for them to talk work stuff, but also trivia like how is your football coming along, or did you see last weeks F1 race. You also have to learn what interests your staff. So the baseline rule is one on one chats. Let them decide how often and when, but it should be no less than once a fortnight.

Of course it is great to go to Singapore, Europe and meet your staff. But financial practicalities mean you are just not going to be able to go every month. Physical ones also mean it is not possible too. But when you do go you have to make the most of the trip. Plan it carefully beforehand. But leave time for things that crop up so you can deal with them.

All one on ones and conference calls should be held at regular times and intervals. You have to get into doing these like this otherwise they never happen.

Video conferencing is good. You have to add a bit of fun to it. Of course you have to be careful what jokes you can use and any local events that might cause painful repercussions.

For each of the two groups of staff APAC and EMEA I have conference calls ( or video) where we go over management stuff from my boss, upper management stuff briefings etc. Again I like to review this information beforehand to lighten it up, add information to make it relevant to our group.

I also make sure all my staff remote or local have all my numbers home/mobile etc so they can contact me anytime. They need to be able contact me if something has happened to them in their private life and they need help or just a chat. I think that is very important. I also login early and turn my phone on at the same time so if the APAC folks want to chat I am available for them. Also I do their one on ones from my house so I do not get distracted by local stuff.

The tools we have at Sun for managing staff are also becoming a lot more globally aware. For ages now the expenses tool has been global and now others are following suit.

I do not claim to be a remote manager expert. If you have your own ideas do let me know them.